Hybrid Cloud just got easier: New Azure Migration resources and tools available

Most customers we talk with are using a Hybrid Cloud approach to take advantage of the cloud and their existing applications and infrastructure. Whether you’re considering migrating some or all your applications to the cloud, the transition from on-premises requires careful planning. You need to understand how much it will cost, how to size your environment, what virtual machine options to choose, and more – and you want to do all this in the smartest and most cost-effective way possible.

With this in mind, today we are offering new tools and resources to help you tap into the power of the hybrid cloud to optimize your business:

A free Cloud Migration Assessment, which helps you discover the servers across your IT environment, analyze their hardware configurations, and provides a detailed report including the estimated cost benefits of moving to Microsoft Azure.

Starting today, you can activate your Azure Hybrid Use Benefit directly in the Azure Management Portal, simplifying your path to the cloud in the most cost effective way possible. With the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit you can save up to 40% with Windows Server licenses that include Software Assurance. All customers can use this easy provisioning experience to save money on Windows Server virtual machines in Azure.

Azure Site Recovery is another tool to make the journey to the cloud as easy as possible. This is a tool you can use to migrate virtual machines to Azure, and it’s a great way to move applications whether they are running on AWS, VMware, Hyper-V or on physical servers. You can already configure ASR to use your Hybrid Use Benefit with PowerShell, and today we’re announcing a new experience that will be available in Azure Site Recovery in the coming weeks that will allow you to tag virtual machines within the Azure portal itself. This capability will make it easier than ever to migrate your Windows Server virtual machines.

With Azure, you get truly consistent hybrid capabilities across cloud and on-premises environments, offering you the flexibility to choose the optimal location for each application, based on your business requirements and reducing the complexity of moving to the cloud. Migrating virtual machines to the cloud is often one of the first steps organizations take in their cloud journey and is a natural part of any hybrid cloud strategy.

Learn more about the tools and resources available today by visiting the Azure Migration page. We’d love to hear from you on how we can continue making your path to the cloud easy and effective.